Mother and her young son are both survivors

Kesha Daniel and her son, Dylan McCoy, 8, both survived health scares and now enjoy living life to the fullest. Daniel hasn't been able to work since chemotherapy, but Dylan has helped out as much as he can.

Now that her hair is growing back, Kesha Daniel looks more like her son, Dylan, than ever.

Cheek to cheek as they pose for photographs on the porch of their La Porte home, it's easy to spot the similarities: dark hair, full cheeks, bright eyes.

Seeing them like this, it's hard to believe what each has been through.

Dylan McCoy, now 8, was born with a small hole in his heart. In 2009, his lungs started to fill with fluids and doctors at Texas Children's Hospital went up through a vein in his groin and patched the hole.

He was out of school for a few weeks but bounced back quickly.

"Now he's awesome," says Daniel, 35. "It's like he never had a problem."

The shelf of baseball trophies in Dylan's bedroom is testament to that.

But Daniel's story is more complicated.

Cancer onslaught

After months of unexplained bleeding, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in July 2010. She had a radical hysterectomy that October, followed by chemotherapy and radiation in December and January.

At that point, Daniel started to feel better, well enough to work part-time for her brother-in-law. She hadn't worked since after Hurricane Ike, when she was laid off from her administrative job at a chemical truck wash plant. Unemployment had long since run out.

But in spring 2011, Daniel started experiencing pain around her bladder. Doctors cured a bladder infection but the pain didn't go away. Because she has no health insurance, Daniel had to wait six months for Medicaid to approve a PET scan. The test detected a new cancerous growth near her bladder.

Time for some big decisions.

Her doctor at University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston recommended removing the bladder, but Daniel's family persuaded her to get a second opinion. When the second doctor told her she had just one year to live, Daniel returned to UTMB for another consultation. She and her doctor decided not to remove the bladder and do intense chemotherapy, instead.

"I'm in remission so far," Daniel says with a wide smile. "They did exploratory surgery on Oct. 15, and they didn't find anything."

Through it all, she has drawn strength from her family.

Daniel's mother and stepfather, Kathy and Richard Blanton, took her and Dylan into their La Porte home in 2010 when Daniel's health bottomed out.

"My mom is a real rock," Daniel says. "She has made us feel welcome. And she took in our two dogs, too. Now there are five dogs in the house."

Dylan finds ways to help his mom, too.

"He wants to be a little boy but also a little man for me," Daniel says.

Staying positive

Dylan tries not to bother his mom when she feels too sick or tired to play with him. He takes care of Roxy and Sophie, their boxer and dachsund. And several times a night, he slips out of his bed and climbs into hers, to give her love and hugs.

"I helped shave her head on the back patio, too," Dylan offers. "It was cool."

This holiday season, money is particularly tight because Daniel hasn't been able to work for nearly two years.

When she was renewing her food stamps recently, someone signed her up for Goodfellows, a Chronicle program that provides toys to children.

Goodfellows gifts go to kids whose families need a helping hand, often because of illness or unemployment. The Chronicle pays the program's administrative costs.